As an explosion shook the narrow, terraced house in Back Street, Cwmglo, sixteen-year-old Merrion Roberts clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream. The baby in the home-made wooden cradle set beside the fire wakened and let out a thin, fretful cry, like the mewling of a frightened kitten.

Merrion picked up her baby sister, not yet a day old, and cradled the infant tenderly in her arms, crooning softly as she tried to rock her back to sleep.

The careworn woman dozing in the wooden armchair facing the fire, her feet resting on the polished steel fender, jerked awake. As her scant eyebrows knotted into a frown, her small brown eyes almost disappeared into her sagging, pudgy face.

Clicking on the book cover image, will take you directly to its Amazon page

…

WHAT IS ‘BOOK BEGINNINGS’ AND HOW CAN YOU JOIN IN THE FUN ?

Would the first few lines of your book make you want to read on?

If so, would you like to share them with us, (without revealing too many spoilers of course) ?

Every now and then I am in the mood for a little contemporary historical romantic fiction and Rosie Thomas always writes a rattling good yarn.

She has been writing using a variety of pseudonyms for many years now and in addition has published over thirty titles under her own name. It has been this series of both Welsh and Liverpudlian sagas that I have been dipping in and out of over the years, as they are all stand alone stories.

‘The Power Of Dreams’ was the 12th book, written back in 2006 and being set as it is in Wales, just at the end of World War One, I can’t wait to find out if the explosion was the result of a remnant device left behind when hostilities were over, or if this is a mining community and there has been an accident down the pit.

Either way, I suspect that life is about to change dramatically for Merrion.

Rosie has done exactly the right thing in choosing just a couple of areas of the country, in which to place her stories. Her descriptive style of writing is one which I have always enjoyed, although it has been a few years since I read one of her books.

In fact checking back on Rosie’s website, it looks as though the majority of the books I have previously read, have come from her Liverpool saga collection, so ‘The Power Of Dreams’ is going to ‘sound’ quite different.

I’m afraid that fantasy, isn’t one of my favourite genres, although I do admire the cover art David Waid has used for his books and I also like the fact that the story is set in Ireland, rather than in some mythical land.

This intro doesn’t bode well for young Merrion and, sure enough, checking out the book’s premise, it sounds like she has quite a challenge ahead of her. It’s an interesting beginning, though. One that makes me want to read on.

I’m 70% into the Kindle version of Spirit of Lost Angels by Liza Perrat.

Prologue (July 1794): “The early light burns Victoire’s cheeks, like a beacon warning her this summer day will bring something special.”

All of Rosie’s books that I have read so far over the years, set challenging storylines for her predominantly female protagonists.

Whilst the biographical details on Rosie’s website only touch slightly on the theme, I came across this extended paragraph on her Goodreads profile which I thought was really informative and explains her thought clearly …

“Rosie sets her books in the 20’s because she has a great admiration for the women who were wives and mothers in those days. They had none of the current time-saving equipment – no washing machines or vacuum cleaners, no instant electric fires or cookers, and certainly no Internet. Their days were long and arduous and often they had to manage on very little money.”
——————————————————–
I still have all three of the Liza Perrat trilogy on my Kindle and to my shame, I have yet to open a single one of them. I really do want to read them back to back if possible, however getting them to the top of my reading pile with all the other committments I already have, is proving something of a challenge.

I do hope that you are enjoying ‘Spirit Of Lost Angels’ so far, the ratings and reviews published so far, have been excellent 🙂

Yes, there does seem to be quite some difference in the ages of the Roberts sisters. I am guessing that there are either more siblings who are not presently in the house; Merrion’s mother has remarried possibly after the death of her husband in the war; or the new baby Roberts came along after Maisie’s father came home after being away so long fighting.

I can’t wait to find out the answers to this and the many other questions those opening lines pose.

If the previous books I have read by this author are anything to go by, then the narrative and dialogue will be comprehensive and in-depth, offering a real sense of time and place, together with some well developed and often complicated characters, thereby always making her stories interesting and intriguing.

Thanks for your interest in this week’s excerpt and for taking the time to comment, I always look forward to your visits 🙂

All the Rosie Harris books I have read in the past, have been excellent testaments to the social and economic history of the time periods in which they are set, which is what makes her writing so interesting.

As this story is set just after the end of the First World War, there are already plenty of questions swirling round in my mind, about the possible causes of the explosion, amongst other things.

Thanks for adding this book to your list and I hope that you find Rosie’s storytelling as intriguing as I do 🙂

Not everyone is into descriptive writing, they would rather just cut to the chase and get the story read.

Me, I’m the complete opposite.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want any author to drivel on for ever, until they have sent their audience to sleep, however I do like some detail in my story, to help set the scene and bring the characters to life.

I think it was probably my mother-in-law who introduced me to Rosie’s books in the first place, as this genre of fiction is what she tends to read on a regular basis.

Me, I only tend to dip in and out of the genre and couldn’t read this style of storytelling on a too regular basis. I have one or two favourite authors in the genre and Rosie Harris is one of them. She always has an interesting story to tell and her characters are well fleshed out and believable every time.

Recent Posts

First Lines

As I descend the concrete staircase, I can’t see my feet for the cardboard box I’m cradling in my arms. Nudging the banister with my elbow for balance, I duck to avoid the underbelly of the main staircase and catch a whiff of chocolate sponge filtered through the fragrance of your freshly laundered clothes. The […]

Random Quote

If I want to write, I write. So just do it. If you think that making time for writing is a problem, just wait until you finish a book, and find a great aching desert of emptiness stretching before you.